Functions

Nix only has unary functions: unary functions are functions which only accept one parameter. However, in combination with uncurrying, you can create functions which take an arbitrary number of parameters.

Functions can be treated as values, and freely passed to other functions as such. To name a function, it just needs to be assigned to variable, much as you would do to a literal.

Function examples:

# creation, and immediate application of a nameless function
nix-repl> (x: x + 2) 3
5

# assigning a function to a variable, then later applying it
nix-repl> addTwo = x: x + 2

nix-repl> addTwo 3
5

# two parameters
nix-repl> sumBoth = x: y: x + y

nix-repl> sumBoth 2 5
7

Attr sets as inputs

Nix also heavily uses attr sets to pass around many arguments. In nixpkgs, this is most commonly used to express what subset of packages and utilities should be used for a nix expression. It's also useful when a large context for a function is needed, and an ordered list of parameters is a poor fit.

Attr sets as inputs are also particular good when the function can provide good defaults, and only a small subset of inputs are expected to be edited.

Function examples:

# function which takes an attr set
nix-repl> addTwo = { x }: x + 2

nix-repl> addTwo { x = 3; }
5

# function which takes optional attr set values
nix-repl> addTwoOptional = { x ? 4 }: x + 2

nix-repl> addTwoOptional { }
6

nix-repl> addTwoOptional { x = 5; }
7

# same as above, but binding the entire attr set to another variable
nix-repl> addTwoOptional = { x ? 4 }@args: args.x + 2

nix-repl> addTwoOptional  { x = 6; }
8

Note: The @ syntax is not very common for most nix expressions. Its most common use case are "helpers", which only care about a subset of arguments, and will then call another function with some of the inputs pruned. A good example of this is the pkgs.fetchFromGithub fetcher; which will know how to translate owner, repo, rev, and other options into a call to builtsin.fetchzip or builtins.fetchgit.